Thursday, January 29, 2015

Interview with Charles Clifford Brooks III

photo credit -- Sandra Smith

Tonight I'd like to post my recent interview with Charles Clifford Brooks III, poet, educator, and founder of the Southern Collective Experience. It is amazing how much he does! More importantly, I think you will want to learn more about him, and after reading this interview, you will continue to be intrigued.

Credit -- Mary Judkins and Holly Holt

Design by Ezra Letra

-- Who is Cowboy Blue Crawford,
and what led you to write an epic about him?

Cowboy
Blue Crawford is me.

I didn’t
plan to write another epic poem as I began to wrap up Athena Departs. The name “Blue” came from the Ephemera and
doesn’t symbolize anything in itself.
“Crawford” is one of my father’s family names, and the town (Crawford,
Georgia) in which I grew up. The idea
that he’s a cowboy originated from the seed that Doc Holliday is among my
trinity of lifelong heroes (i.e. Dante, Beethoven, and Holliday).

The work
is autobiographical. I am a different
man than that hurt boy from The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics.
The Salvation of Cowboy Blue Crawford leaks out of the fissures left behind in
my flesh from battles won in my personal and professional life. It’s no sad song, or overwrought “I am
tough” façade so many males in the arts feel must be fronted. I am me.
I am Cowboy Blue Crawford.

Photo credit -- Matthew Polsfuss

-- Why did you choose the epic
form?

The
absolute focus it takes to write an epic is the primary reason I’m drawn to it
as an art form. The longer a poem is,
the tighter you must stitch the language.
My nemesis is boredom. The
attention needed to craft an epic removes all chances of me falling into a
malaise of inactivity and incessant, itchy moods. The Salvation of Cowboy Blue Crawford has also made me take an
honest stock of who I am now - whether it’s pretty or not. I think one of the reasons my poetry has
struck a sticking point is due to the fact I am the same man on paper that I am
in person. I do not brag or make undo
apologies.

Interior
rhyme, I’ve found, is one of the keys to keeping a reader moving forward. I began in this business as a writer of
prose. The epic allows me to marry
poetry and the prosaic length of a good story.
All writers must love, and be good at, spinning a good story. That’s what poetry and prose is all
about. Plus, I feel society is
underestimated in its ability to digest and appreciate the epic.

Although
poetry is often a solitary undertaking, I don’t walk this road alone. Brother Felino A. Soriano and Brother Joe
Milford are also a part of this project and add epics of their own. This is the first collaboration I’ve ever
attempted, and it’s been effortless.
The title of this collaboration has yet to be decided. The Salvation of Cowboy Blue Crawford is
only a piece of the whole. There’s even
a unique addition of a prose piece that ties all three of our characters
together. If you do the right work with
the right people for the right reasons, miracles happen every day. Fact.

Painting by Ka-Son Reeves inspired by Cowboy Blue Crawford
This will be the cover of the epic once it is published.

-- What surprised you the most
about writing an epic? Why?

What
surprised me most is how much fun it is to write an epic. It demands a sharp lexicon, including one’s
genuine drawl, awareness of one’s roots, truth of self, and a challenge that
will show the poet's true strength.

Yet, the
revisions and follow-through of the epic can be brutal to one with an OCD hold
on perfectionism. I have become better
about that since my first book, but to be honest, completely honest, it can
feel like a “broken hallelujah” (thank you, Jeff Buckley).

So, to
muscle through that barrage of reflection, I threw on music. The blues, old
school country, gospel and bluegrass coaxed me beyond many writer’s
blocks. It became the soundtrack for
the whole work.

-- What led you to start the
Southern Collective Experience?

The idea
came to me a decade ago. Brother Joe
Milford was on the phone with me as I started to throw around the idea of
dispelling the cliché that artists can’t be friendly, if not family, while also
being practical business folk. Art does
make money. I don’t work for free. For life, love, or rent – everything I do
today is because I adore it, and because it allows me to financially breathe
deep.

More
recently, someone told me that I can’t control the number of jackasses in my
life. That isn’t true. The Experience began to come into immediate
focus as also an oasis of intelligence, often-rough humor, with both hands
buried deep in the Cemetery of Expression.
We are a company. We are all
published legit. Our reputations speak
for themselves. No soapbox. No haughty mission statement. No promise to return art to some utopian
state. We will make it better now,
tomorrow, and tomorrow.

The SCE
is a group of photographers, visual artists, prose writers, graphic designers,
poets, and musicians. We share a
similar, smart, gritty song in our hearts and refuse to shoot anywhere but
straight.

When
someone gets huffy with me about entrance into the group by asking if I’m an
elitist, the answer is – yes. If that’s what people call someone who doesn’t compromise, I’ll
stand by it.

Photograph of the SCE by Sandra Smith

-- I'm sure that you get this
question all the time, but what does it mean to you to be Southern? Where/how do you draw the boundary? (I've
known people who consider Indiana to be Southern; I also knew one man who
informed me that Virginia was NOT Southern.)

Being
Southern isn’t just about place. Yet,
being from below the Mason-Dixon certainly helps. Being Southern-minded is a classical education that exemplifies
the virtue of using language to settle unrest, but common sense (and ability)
to put the bad man down. Violence isn’t
always the answer, but sometimes it is.
To be Southern is to give both God and the Devil their respect and
space.

We have a
melody between us that’s simple in its genius.
In my opinion, the South is the only part of America that isn’t afraid
of claiming a culture. This culture
isn’t sexist or racist or riddled with Civil War Guilt. We come from all walks of life, both sexes,
many religions, but united in the pursuit of genuine expression, intolerance
for politically correct pressure, while wearing a real smile and strong
resolve.

There is
music in every crevice of the South. A
great deal of music in our family goes back and forth as we pull tighter
together. I’ve come to believe if
someone has a deep-seeded love of some true form of music, there’s something
redeemable in their soul. We sing to
the world through the tones in our work and, as time goes on, all of us experience
the peace in harmony.

-- How do you see the Southern
Collective Experience evolving?

This year
(in April 2015) we launch our magazine, The Copperhead Literary & Arts
Review. We also make our website (www.southerncollectiveexperience.com) more visible this year, which
includes Copperhead and our radio show, Dante’s Old South from WYYZ 1490AM, The
Croc. The radio show starts back up in
the late spring or early summer of this year with Brother Matt Youngblood. It will scream over the airwaves as well as
streaming online coast-to-coast.

The
newest evolution of the team is the Apprentice Class, which takes men and women
with enormous talent and gives them access to those in the same field who are
making a success of their greatest passion.
This in no way makes it easier for the Apprentice Class, only enlightens
and exposes those who need (and deserve) it most to the real world wisdom not
taught in college. (I think the last
course any art-based degree should include is: How the World Really Works
101. I am more than happy to develop
this curriculum.)

All of us
continue to grow on our own. A
brilliant point in our social contract is that none of us lose our
independence. None of us are swallowed
by the demands of a group mentality. We
fine tune this group every day. There
are projects coming out this year that will leave us all spellbound. It’s the grace of being happy for other’s
happiness and the desire to help them reach their “laughing place” (one of Brer
Rabbit’s cunning terms of escape from Brer Fox and Brer Bear).

We are
creating a fresh merchandising line for the SCE, and by this summer we hope to
have a location for our own open mic night.
The big difference in our open mic is the discussion and constructive
criticism of the work presented. If you
can’t take honest input delivered in a gentle fashion, don’t get into this
occupation. Yet, there’s a way to offer
criticism without being an asshole. I
am doing an interview soon more on the SCE’s recreation of the open mic/poetry
reading. The trick is to make it a
festival with musicians, visual artists, dance, prose, and poetry. Remove outdated limitations and you reinvent
the universe of performing arts. Yes,
reading poetry is just that – a performance.

Athena
Departs exhibits a braver use of the way(s) in which I speak and think. As with The Salvation of Cowboy Blue
Crawford, Athena Departs doesn’t limp with the weight of lost love or befuddled
by depression. Athena picks up where my
first book left off. The stories mature
and simply tell the facts behind my becoming.

-- What surprised you the most
about writing your second book? Why?

What I
found the most surprising was the lack of anxiety involved with the creation
of, and editing, my poetry. The lessons
I learned the first go-around stuck and it has saved me the self-imposed,
accidental exile necessary to carve out The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling
Metaphysics. My teaching job and the
SCE have helped me keep my crazy train firmly on the rails. I am responsible to those in this
family. That includes striving to do my
best while avoiding the clichés of boozing or using narcotics to fuel my
inspiration. One of the only maxims of
our team is, “Don’t embarrass the family.”

Teaching
forces me to focus on others and get out of my head for a considerable portion
of the week. I have found this to be
beneficial to my overall chill when my obsession to express myself exactly
right just might drive me right up a tree I won’t climb down from if left too
long alone. Teaching tunes me into the
lives of fascinating people and allows me to flex another skill set outside
creative internal monologue.

-- What advice would you give
writers (and other artists) who want to use social media?

Use it
genuinely. Don’t puke up every detail
of your life. Think hard about what you
want the public to know in the event that success slips under your front door. Privacy is priceless. If you see writing (or the arts) as a
real-world career, these are things you must consider and respect along with
the excitement.

-- If you had to live anywhere in
the South, other than Georgia, where would you live? If you had to live anywhere in the US, other than the South,
where would you live? Why?

If I had
to move out of Georgia, but stay in the South, I would go to New Orleans. Anyone who has been there, and left a bit of
themselves in that town, knows why. If
I had to live outside the South, I would hit either Washington State or
Colorado. I like the mountains and
breathing room between folks up there.

Above is the cover of Clifford's first book.

The cover of Clifford's second book is by Ezra Letra.

The
Salvation of Cowboy Blue Crawford

Preface

And
I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and
Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of
the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the
beasts of the earth.

CliffordBrooks is a teacher, freelance writer, and poet living in North Georgia. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and Georgia Author of the Year for his first book of verse, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics. Clifford’s next book of poetry, Athena Departs, is currently in the last stages of editing. His newest accomplishment, with the help of many brilliant artists, is the creation of The Southern Collective Experience, who will soon have a website of their own. His online presence includes Twitter; Instagram; Facebook; and his personal website Cliff Brooks. Artistic snippets of his work (as created by Holly Holt, a member of The Collective) can be found on Pinterest here: Athena Departs; and The Salvation of Cowboy Blue Crawford.